The Southwest Cotton Physiology Conference will be held Feb. 10-12 at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Lubbock, 1102 E. Farm-to-Market Road 1294. The event is hosted by Texas A&M AgriLife, Kansas State University and Oklahoma State University.

fluffy white cotton on brown plants
The Southwest Cotton Physiology Conference will be in Lubbock on Feb. 10-12 and feature speakers from Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. (Michael Miller/Texas A&M AgriLife)

The program will begin at 1 p.m. Feb. 10 and continue all day on Feb. 11 and again until noon on Feb. 12.

The fee is $20, and registration is available online.

There will be eight and a half Texas Department of Agriculture continuing education units and Certified Crop Advisers units in the following categories: two pest management, four crop management, one and a half in soil and water management, and one nutrient management.

On the agenda

The program will have the following topics and speakers on Feb. 10:

  • Pathology and nematode update – Terry Wheeler, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife Research plant pathologist and professor, Lubbock, and Tom Isakeit Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service plant pathologist and professor, Bryan-College Station, all in the Texas A&M Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology; and Maira Duffeck, Ph.D., assistant professor, entomology and plant pathology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater.
  • Variety performance and stability – Ben McKnight, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension statewide cotton specialist and assistant professor, Bryan-College Station; Ken Legé, Ph.D., cotton specialist and assistant professor, Lubbock; and Emi Kimura, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension statewide peanut specialist, agronomist and associate professor, all in the Texas A&M Department of Soil and Crop Sciences; and Logan Simon, Ph.D., southwest area agronomist, Kansas State University, Garden City, Kansas.
  • Cotton jassid and other insect control update – Suhas Vyavhare, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension entomologist and assistant professor, Texas A&M Department of Entomology.

The program on Feb. 11 will include:

  • Strategies to make cotton profitable I: Seeding rates and row spacing – Rebekah Pustejovsky, AgriLife Extension assistant and doctoral student at Texas Tech University; Oscar Fernandes Montero, graduate research assistant at Texas A&M University; Reagan Noland, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension agronomist and associate professor, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, San Angelo; Kimura and McKnight.
  • Physiology, growth and development I: Maturity and target development curve – Craig Bednarz, Ph.D., AgriLife Research crop physiologist and director of the Semi-Arid Agricultural Systems Institute and associate professor, West Texas A&M University, Canyon, and Brenna Cannon, doctoral candidate, Oklahoma State University.
  • Testing ag performance solutions, TAPS: Opportunities in the southwest – Hope Nakabuye, AgriLife Research irrigation engineer and assistant professor, Lubbock; and Sumit Sharma, Ph.D., Extension irrigation management specialist, Oklahoma State University, Goodwell, Oklahoma.
  • Precision ag/irrigation technology I: Fertility and irrigation strategies, Katie Lewis, Ph.D., AgriLife Research soil scientist and professor with Texas A&M and Texas Tech University, Lubbock; and Brian Arnall, Ph.D., precision nutrient management Extension specialist, Oklahoma State University.
  • Physiology, growth and development II: Seed size, stand uniformity and fiber quality – Reagan Heinrich, AgriLife Research research associate, Lubbock; Riley Siders, AgriLife Extension assistant and Texas Tech University graduate student; and Jonathon Salgado, AgriLife Extension student worker and graduate student, Texas Tech.
  • Precision ag/irrigation technology II: Irrigation automation, irrigation timing – Wenxuan Guo, Ph.D., AgriLife Research ecophysiologist and associate professor, Texas A&M Department of Soil and Crop Sciences and Texas Tech University; Jonathan Aguilar, Ph.D., professor, Kansas State University.
  • Plains Cotton Growers update, Mark Brown, director of field services, Plains Cotton Growers, Lubbock.
  • The Cotton Board update, Shelley Heinrich, southern plains regional communications manager, The Cotton Board, Slaton.
  • Ag retail panel discussion, with representatives from several regional retailers.

On the agenda for Feb. 12 are:

  • Strategies to make cotton profitable II: Conventional systems, extra-long staple systems and northern geography strategies – Jenny Dudak, Ph.D., plant and soil sciences assistant professor and Extension cotton specialist, Oklahoma State University; Legé and Simon.
  • Precision ag/irrigation technology III: Targeted pesticide application technologies – Sarah Lancaster, Ph.D., assistant professor and Extension specialist, Kansas State University.
  • Organic cotton production – Bob Whitney, AgriLife Extension organic program specialist and Regents Fellow, Department of Agricultural Economics, Stephenville.
  • Novel uses for cotton – Noureddine Abidi, Ph.D., managing director of the Fiber and Biopolymer Research Institute, Texas Tech University, Lubbock.

For more information, contact McKnight at 225-454-0435, [email protected]; Legé, 806-201-4775, [email protected]; Simon, 620-276-8286, [email protected]; or Dudak, 563-608-6112, [email protected].

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